It's quite unfortunate that so many people out there are carrying staphylococcus bacteria on their body unaware, undetected, simply because of the readily available presence of the invasive microorganism on virtually every surfaces plus the ease of contracting it.
At times, people infected with the bacteria, show no signs or symptoms, save for some minor skin conditions like- boils, abscesses, cellulitis impetigo, paronychia, etc. It's only when the staph bacteria have stayed long in their body and eventually enters the bloodstream, that's when the real problem starts. By this time, the bacteria would have done some serious damages at the cellular level, what more? the carrier must have spread it unknowingly.
The staphylococcus aureus, is a bacteria that belongs to the Staphylococci family. They are gram-positive, that's they have a thick outer layer made of peptidoglycan, a round (coccus) bacteria found in grape-like clusters. For the purpose of this write-up, staphylococcus aureus, aureus staph, or golden staph, are the same, thus they are going to be used interchangeably.
This bacteria causing staph, can spread easily from person to person, or animal to person, or vice versa. It can be contracted from sharing personal items like- shaving sticks, clippers, towels, and even from toilet seats, and the gym, yes, those thread mills and other workout equipment, are potential breeding grounds for this infectious disease.
Don't be alarm, even our healthcare facilities are not safer from the invasive scourge of staph bacteria, especially mrsa, that's the more reason why proper hygiene should be observed at all times.
For the record, there are more than 30 types of staphyloccocus bacteria, but the most stubborn and deadly of them all is the staphylococcus aureus, that's the one that systematically metamorphose into MRSA- Methicillin Resistance Staphylococcus Aureus- also nicknamed SUPERBUG because of it evolving and adaptive nature to resist antibiotics treatment and other generic drugs. The bacteria, have been proven to be more deadly than HIV/AIDs and some other health conditions in recent years.
The bacteria, invades the body’s immune system, large immune cells refers to as macrophages. They causes a range of infections to the body, attacking the skin, blood, lungs and heart, bones, etc.
It's estimated that the multi-drug resistance mrsa disease, is responsible for some 35,000 deaths and about 2.8 million illnesses each year in United States alone!
Another source has it that, staph bacteria alone kills more than 19,000 Americans every year— that's more than emphysema, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, and homicide combined. I don't think those figures has decline ever since.
Eve our health facilities that are supposed to be helping us combat the spread of this diseases, has become one of those places to get easily infected, no thanks to the resilient nature of this invasive microbes, as this have consequently given rise to what's now known as Healthcare Associated Staphylococcus Aureus or Hospital-acquired methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus(HASA or HA-MRSA).
Findings has shown that the infection is one of the most common pathogens in healthcare facilities and in the community, causing more than 100,000 BSIs and almost 20,000 deaths in 2017 alone!
This have raised serious concerns as to why proper hygienic and sanitation system around hospitals and health facilities should be observed. This bacteria is one of the five most common causes of infections after injury or surgery. It affects around 500,000 patients in American hospital, according to medical sources.
As a rule of the thumb, people going into hospital are advised to take precautionary measures like washing their hands regularly with hand sanitizer, further more, staffs are advised to observe good standard hygiene, and to wear gloves especially when in contact with patients undergoing surgery or with open wounds or sores, all these just to curb the infection and re-infection. But even with all these preventive measures, prevalent rate is still high.
This MRSA, is the stubborn and drug-resistance strain of staph aureus which is able to resist most antibiotics treatment for staph infection, and because of it contagious and invasive nature, nursing mothers and new born have become victims.
Thousands of people have been treating aureus staph for years, with no significant improvement in their health conditions. But the truth of the matter is that, for the most part, they are just managing the symptoms, and not the root causes.
However, for staph skin infection, like the staphylo epidermidis, the bacteria depends on where you're infected, thus it can leave harmlessly on the skin of most people, including animals.
They can reside in places like, buttocks, nose, armpits, etc of individuals. Though, they can cause mild discomfort, but can be tolerated by applying antibacterial or antifungal ointment on the affected areas. But, it can become life threatening when and if this deadly organism sips into the your bloodstream, mostly through open wounds, cuts, injuries or abrasions, eczema patch, etc, and there's bound to be a reoccurrence of those skin infections mentioned earlier, because the bacteria, now resides in your bloodstream.
Records shows that staph bloodstream infection has a 12-month death rate of between 20 and 35%, compared with 3-5% for a heart attack in hospitals- now that's very scary.
Any link between sepsis and invasive staph infections?
Be informed that symptoms like; cold, lower back pain, chills, internal heat, body itching, constant headache, bleeding gums, boils and sores mostly around the genitals, etc, are obvious staph infection symptoms. That's why proper diagnosis should be carried out to be sure.
Findings reveal that mrsa infection can affect the kidneys. Since the bacteria can invade the bloodstream, poisoning the blood overtime, thereby making it toxic, this inadvertently put a huge load on the kidneys whose primacy function is to detoxify the blood, thereby overwhelming the organs in the process, and causing serious damage.
Note that staph organism in the bloodstream, can cause Bacteremia, which basically means the presence of bacteria in the blood stream. And, when this bacteria already in the blood begins to multiply overtime, it can result to a condition known as Septicemia which degenerate into sepsis- one of the major causes of blood poisoning. So, it's possible that this bacteria can cause sepsis. We are going to look at that briefly.
Yes, persons suffering from mrsa infection are at greater risk of contacting sepsis or blood poisoning.
Indeed, staph bacteria in the bloodstream, has been link to one of the major causes of sepsis- according to recent studies.
Sepsis which is an infection of the bloodstream can leads to a widespread inflammatory response. It’s one of the most dangerous outcomes of staph, and can spread throughout your body, affecting the internal organs. Evidently, serious signs of common staph, and sepsis, are quite similar.
Test reveals that of all micro-organisms that cause sepsis, that's organism like- parasites, fungi, bacteria, and virus, the most active ones are bacteria infections like- salmonella spp, streptococcus pneumonia, aureus staphylococcus, Escherichia coli, haemophilus, Neisseria meningitides, etc.
Consequently, of all the bacteria microbe listed here, it was observe that the staphylococcus aureus strain, is the most common organism that can result into sepsis. So, apparently, staph can cause sepsis.
People with weak or compromised immune systems or other underlying health conditions like; diabetes, hypertension, renal failure, HIV/AIDs, cancer, diabetes, kidney problems, etc, are more likely to die from sepsis. The elderly, little children, and even pregnant women are at risk.
Findings shows that sepsis kills 11million people each year, many of them children, what more?, sepsis has being noted to precipitate other chronic health conditions too, which we would look at briefly.
Be informed that septicemia and sepsis are essentially the same. Sepsis is a essentially a serious complication of septicemia. Sepsis causes inflammation throughout the body. This inflammation can cause blood clots and block oxygen from reaching vital organs, resulting in organ failure.
Noticed that invasive staph still remains the most prevalent causes of sepsis.
Did you know that If you manage to survive severe sepsis, you’re at risk of developing other serious health complications?
Those statistics are not meant to scare you, just to make you beware and aware of the menace of this invasive infections.
Here are some complications of bacteria infection you might be aware of-
Septic Arthritis- This infection targets your joints, often the knees, hips, shoulders, finger joints, or toe joints.
Staph had also be known to be largely responsible for this condition
⦁Endocarditis, which is an infection and inflammation of the heart valves and the inner lining of the heart chambers, which is called the endocardium.
⦁Toxic Shock Syndrome. This bacteria infection, occurs when staph aureus sips into your bloodstream and produce toxins, thereby poisoning the bloodstream.
⦁Osteomyelitis, this bacteria infection occurs when a bone in your body becomes infected. Notice that the underlying cause remains staph bacteria.
⦁Pyomyositis is another bacterial infection of the skeletal muscles, which are the muscles you use for movement.
⦁Pneumonia, which is a bacteria infection that causes inflammation and fluid accumulation in the air sacs of your lungs, making it very hard to breathe comfortably.
The above health conditions are bacteria induced, and are replicated too with sufferers of staph, and their symptoms are essentially the same, because it still boils down to bacteria invasion of the bloodstream.
And because of our desperation to treat staph infections, we resort to taking different antibiotics which can't effectively treat staph, but rather the symptoms, and coupled with side effects of prolong use of such antibiotics. It's on record that's only about 5% of today's invasive staph infections can be cured, even at that, we can't say how effective such cure is.
Giving what we know so far, what step are you taking to prevent contracting staph infection, or even curb the spread, having at the back of your mind, the resilient nature of this deadly microbes to strive in diverse environment?
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